SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY AND COUNSELING spiritualpc.net / 2020 Volume: 5 Number: 1 Original Article Spiritually-Oriented Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy Tuğba Turgut1 Füsun Ekşi2 Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University İstanbul Medeniyet University 1 Research Assistant, Department of Educational Sciences, Guidance and Psychological Counseling, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University, Istanbul, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Education Sciences, Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, İstanbul Medeniyet University, İstanbul, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract A great many factors influence human life. Among these are individuals’ religious and spiritual orientations, whose importance cannot be understated as they not only affect how individuals perceive and interpret themselves, events in their everyday lives, and the greater world but also shape their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Consequently, religious and spiritual orientations constitute an integral part of clients’ lives and are an important element that needs to be thoroughly investigated. In addition to having been integrated into individual psychological counseling approaches, religious/ spiritual orientation has become as a highly supportive element in family therapy. Spiritually-oriented applications are quite helpful when addressing problems dealt with by individuals and families. In the current study, spiritually-oriented cognitive-behavioral family therapy is addressed in light of the relevant literature. We first present a general overview of cognitive-behavioral therapy and cognitive- behavioral family therapy, after which we frame the assessment steps followed in spiritually-oriented cognitive-behavioral family therapy within a paradigm based on religion and spirituality. After that, we reveal the religious/spiritual-based cognitive-behavioral applications that may be used during family therapy. We then discuss several exercises and applications employed during spiritually- oriented cognitive-behavioral family therapy. Finally, this study seeks to fill in gaps in the relevant literature on this topic in Turkey and offer a novel perspective to practitioners and researchers. Keywords: Spirituality • Family Therapy • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy • Spiritually-Oriented Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy Manevi Yönelimli Bilişsel Davranışçı Aile Terapisi Öz Corresponding author: İnsan yaşamında birçok faktör etkili olmakla birlikte dini ve manevi yönelim; bireylerin kendilerini, Tuğba Turgut çevresindeki olayları ve dünyayı nasıl algıladığını ve anlamlandırdığını etkilemekte ayrıca bireylerin E-mail: düşüncelerini, duygularını ve davranışlarını şekillendirmektedir. Bu doğrultuda dini ve manevi [email protected] yönelimin danışanların önemli bir parçasını oluşturduğu, terapi sürecinde de üzerinde durulması gereken önemli bir bileşen olduğu düşünülmektedir. Dini ve manevi yönelim bireysel psikolojik danışma yaklaşımlarına entegre edilmekle birlikte, aile terapileri sürecinde de oldukça destekleyici eISSN: 2458-9675 bir unsur olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Aile bireylerinde ve aile sisteminde yer alan problemleri ele alırken manevi yönelimli uygulamalar oldukça işlevsel görünmektedir. Bu doğrultuda bu Received Revision: çalışmada manevi yönelimli bilişsel davranışçı aile terapisinin ilgili literatür çerçevesinde ele 26.11.2019 alınması amaçlanmaktadır. Öncelikle BDT ve bilişsel davranışçı aile terapisine genel bir bakış Revision: sunulmakta, ardından manevi yönelimli bilişsel davranışçı aile terapisi sürecinde değerlendirme 01.01.2020 aşamaları, terapinin din ve maneviyatla çerçevelendirilmesi, aile terapisi sürecinde kullanılabilecek Accepted: dini-manevi temelli bilişsel davranışçı uygulamalar açıklanmakta ve son olarak manevi temelli bilişsel davranışçı aile terapisiyle ilgili gerçekleştirilen uygulamalara yer verilmektedir. Bu 11.02.2020 çalışmanın özellikle ülkemizde eksik kalan noktaları dolduracağı, alandaki uygulayıcılara ve araştırmalara farklı bir perspektif sağlayacağı ve katkı sunacağı düşünülmektedir. ©Copyright 2020 Anahtar Kelimeler: Maneviyat • Aile Terapisi • Bilişsel Davranışçı Terapi • Manevi Yönelimli by Author(s) Bilişsel Davranışçı Aile Terapisi Citation: Turgut, T., & Ekşi, F. (2020). Spiritually-oriented cognitive-behavioral family therapy. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling, 5, 87–111. https://dx.doi.org/10.37898/spc.2020.5.1.095 DOI: 10.37898/spc.2020.5.1.095 Turgut, Ekşi / Spiritually-Oriented Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy Overview of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an approach that essentially endeavors to aid individuals in reorganizing their own thought structures and both the sentences and comments employed during internal dialogue so as to instigate appropriate changes in their feelings, behaviors and, from an even wider perspective, their lives in general (Corey, 2015). Based on collaboration between counselor and client, CBT is a structured, short-term, mostly active therapy technique that emphasizes the importance of the current moment, that focuses on modifying thought structures in order to bring about change in clients’ emotions and behaviors, and that generally incorporates educational characteristics (Arnkoff & Glass, 1992; Beck & Weishaar, 2008). At the core of CBT is the assumption that one’s cognitions (i.e., thoughts) influence his/her affectability and behaviors (Beck, 2005). Just as thoughts affect emotions and behaviors, there are mutual interactions between emotions, thoughts and behaviors. CBT holds that an individuals’ affectability and behaviors are determined by the situations and events that s/he experiences and that they actually stem from how the individual perceives, relates to, and thinks about an event. Though a situation does not directly affect how an individual feels, it does mediate his/her perception of, thoughts toward, and emotional reactions to the situation, (Beck, 1995; Leahy, 2018; Sudak, 2006). When classifications of therapies are examined, we observe that an excess of 20 different types of therapies are classified as either cognitive or cognitive-behavioral. With that, the two CBT approaches constituting the basis off of which further investigations are conducted are Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy and Beck’s Cognitive Therapy (Corey, 2015; Murdock, 2014). Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Developed by Ellis, REBT is an approach grounded in rigorous philosophies that seeks to provoke deep-rooted changes in individuals’ perspectives in which therapists play an active role and in which the educational process is integrated into therapy (Köroğlu, 2017). The basic assumption of REBT is that affectability results from individuals’ current beliefs, various assessments, and their reactions to the events they face in life. Essentially, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors impact each other and depend on mutual interaction and causation (Ellis & Dryden, 1997). At its core, REBT asserts that every human is endowed with the potential to think both rationally and rationally. Irrational beliefs are learned during childhood from people considered important to the individual (Ellis, 2001). Ellis states that underlying emotional problems are individuals’ own accusations against themselves. He highlights the importance of an individual’s ability to accept him/herself unconditionally and states that being able to accept oneself unconditionally is critical in resolving psychological problems (Ellis, 2007). In REBT, it is sought that non-functioning emotions and thoughts be exchanged 88 Spiritual Psychology and Counseling, 5(1), 87–111 with functioning mechanisms, that clients be aided in unconditionally accepting themselves and others, that the effect of destructive thoughts and beliefs causing emotional problems in the individual be reduced to a minimum, and that clients construct a rational life philosophy (Digiuseppe, Doyle, Dryden, & Backx, 2013). A variety of techniques are utilized to realize counseling objectives, including cognitive techniques (e.g., ABC model, changing one’s language, disrupting irrational beliefs), emotive techniques (e.g., rational-emotive imagery, role playing, and use of force and vigor), and behavioral techniques (e.g., systematic desensitization, relaxation exercises, and self-direction) (Corey, 2015; Dryden & Neenan, 2006). Cognitive Therapy (CT). Developed as a result of Beck’s research on depression, CT is an insight-oriented approach that aims to identify and modify negative thoughts and irrational beliefs (Beck, 1979). CT is grounded in the assumptions that individuals can access their own intrapersonal communications through internal observations and that their beliefs carry meaning and importance in their lives, and that clients’ beliefs and the meanings they attribute to life can be discovered through their own self-observations as opposed to counselors’ interpretations (Weishaar, 1993). Seeking to understand the reason for an emotional situation, CT examines the cognitive content of an individual’s reactions to the situation in question (Beck, 1995). Beck emphasizes two concepts, namely automatic thoughts and schemata, while examining individuals’ cognitive content and further divides schemata into core beliefs and intermediate beliefs. Core beliefs are defined as deep mental structures containing basic assumptions formed by previous events and experiences about oneself, one’s environment, and the world. The three negative core beliefs are helplessness (notions